Closure device



March 29, 1960 w. A. SMITH 2,930,435

CLOSURE DEVICE Filed March 26. 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TOR. fl zsz [r ,4 f/V/TH wyagm March 29, 1960 w. A. SMITH CLOSURE DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 26, 1958 INVENTOR. Wmzzr ,4. 5/1/17 March 29, 1960 w. A. SMITH CLOSURE DEVICE 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 26. 1958 INVENTOR. We?! :r A 5400/ United States Pate11t;0

CLOSURE DEVICE Wesley A. Smith, St. Clair Shores, Mich., assignor to Tilt-A-Door Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corpora tion of Michigan Application March 26, 1958, Serial No. 724,165-

5 Claims. (Cl. 160-207) This invention relates to a door structure and particularly relates to an improvement in the door shown in application Serial No. 635,370.

In said application, there is shown a door having two horizontally divided sections, the upper section of which is pivoted for movement on a horizontal axis which is located between the upper and the lower ends thereof, and the lower section of which has its lower edge arranged for both pivoting and vertically sliding action in substantially the plane of the opening closed by said door and has its upper edge hingedly connected to'the lower edge of the upper section. This door has worked very satisfactorily for the purposes intended, as set forth in said application, but it has been observed that with some individual units thereof the lower edge of the lower section moves upward properly to contact, or substantially contact, the adjacent surface of the upper section when the door is in its opened posiiton, but in other units of the door the lower edge of the lower section may be spaced a substantial distance from said adjacent surface of the upper section when the door is in its opened position. A great deal of effort has been expended to ascertain why different units of apparently identical doors when in opened position have their upper and lower sections in different positions with respect to each other, and much effort has becn expended in attempting to correct these situations by varying the amount of counterbalancving material applied to the upper end of the upper section and by providing a variety of dilferent types of opening and closing mechanisms. However, none of these expedients have been satisfactory.

The present invention deals with the cause and cure of the above mentioned difficulty.

More particularly, in attempting to improve the construction of such door and the uniformity of operation thereof, it was recognized that the force lifting the lower edge of the lower section in an upward direction was a vertical ccmponent of the force applied by said lower section to the rollers at the lower edge of said lower section, such force being sensed from the axes of said rollers toward the axes of the hinges by which the lower section is aifixed to the lower edge of the upper section. As the door approaches its open position, the lower section approaches a condition of perpendicularity with respect to the track through which said rollers ride and hence said vertical component becom.s extremely small as compared to the horizontal componentof said force. Thus, if for any reason said force is diminished even a relatively small amount, said vertical component may very readily become less than the force required to move said lower edge upwardly and, accordingly, the movement of the lower edge of the lower section stops. Inasmuch as said force is a function of the distance between the axis of the hinges between the upp r and lower sections and the surface of said tracks on which said rollers ride, it was at first believed that the only way to control the above mentioned force was to .hold the spacing between said hinge axes and said track constant within' extremely accurate limits.

. Patented Mar. .29, 1960 This, however, created a problem inthe insta'llation of said doors in that it required installation which was ac curate within such extremely small tolerances that it was usually impractical, and often impossible, to obtain on a commercially acceptable basis and was in any event extremely diflicult to obtain.

However, the pres :nt invention solves this dilemma by effecting anadjustability in the spacing between said hinge axis and the axes of said rollers in such a manner that the proper force can b: developed between said rollers and said hinges even though there is some error in the positioning of the tracks within which said rollers operate. Further, this adjustability can be made independently on each side or end of said door and hence suitable adjustment can be made in the event the tracks on either side of the door ar: not placed with exact uniformity with respect to each other.

Accordingly, a major object of the invention has been to provide means by which a door of the type shown in application Serial No. 635,370, can-be adjusted to compensate for errors in the positioning of the track in which the rollers at thelower end of said door operate and thereby effect a full lifting of the lower end of the lower section of said door upwardly against, or substantially against, the adjacent surface of the uppersection of said door when said door is moved into its opened position.

A further object of the invention has been to provide a means, as aforesaid, which can be adjusted independ- 7 extremely minor changes in the. previously utilized structure.

A further, object of the invention has been to provide a rneans, as aforesaid, which can be adjusted by installation workmen on the job site and at or after the time of installation. r r

A further object of the invention has been to provide a means, as aforesaid, which when once adjusted into a selected position will remain in such position.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with devices of this general type upon a reading of the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front exterior view of a door embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is a section taken on the line 11-11 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a section substantially as taken on the line III-III of Figure 1 showing in solid lines the door in end elevation and in the desired open position and showing in broken lines the door in a partially open position.

Figure 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a section substantially as taken on the line VV of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a section taken on the line VI-VI of Figure 2;

Figure 7 is a section taken on the line VII-VII of Figure 4.

General description In general, the invention comprises the provision of suitable means by which adjustment may be made of the spacing of the axis of the hinge between the upper and lower sections from the pivot structure for the upper section or from the guide tracks for the lower section.

. More specifically, a preferred form of the invention comprises threaded means by which the plates comprising one side of said hinge structure are adjustably mounted on and with respect to the side portions of the side frame members of the upper section of said door.

Detailed description In describing a door embodying the invention, certain of similar import, will refer to directions taken with respect to the door in its normal position of use as well as directions appearing in the drawings. Terms rightward or leftward, and derivatives thereof or words of similar import, will refer to directions as appearing in the drawings or in a particular drawing under consideration in connection with the use of such terminology. The terms inward" and/or outward," and derivatives thereof or words of similar import, will refer to directions inwardly or outwardly of the building with which a given door is being used. Turning now to a brief description of the type of door out of which arises the problem dealt with by the present invention, attention is called primarily to Figures 1 and 2"ofthe accompanying drawings. The structure of this door is illustrated and described in detail in an application of Smith and Ginther, Serial No. 635,370 but for purposes of convenient reference, it will be briefly summarized here.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown in Figure 1 a building 1 having a door opening which is filled by a door 3. Said door 3 has an upper section 4 which is pivotally mounted (Figure 2) by pivot structure 6 onto a bracket 7 which is mounted to the inward side of the building wall. Counterbalance structure 8 is provided at the upper end of said upper section 4. Said counterbalance structure may be of any known sort, suchas shown in United States Patent No. 2,601,565. The lower section 9 of said door is pivotally connected'by the hinge 11 to the lower edge of the upper section 4, said hinge structure including hinge elements 12 and 13 which are respectively connected to suitable portions of the upper and lower sections. A Weatherstrip is secured to the upper section 4 and overlaps the upper edge of the lower section 9 of the door. The lower end of said lower section 9 carries a roller 14 which is received within and runs vertically within channel structure 16, which channel structure or guide track is here formed by the combination of a Z-bar 17 (Figure 4) together with a channel 18. The free flange 19 of the Z-bar is fastened in any v. convenient manner, as by bolting, to the inside surface of the wall structure 1.

Suitable manual or power-operated means may be provided for effecting opening and closing of the door as set forth in detail in said application of Smith and Ginther, Serial No. 635,370. For present purposes, the manually operated pull cord 21 may be taken to sufliciently illusthus far presented with said application of Smith and.

Ginther, Serial No. 635,370, that the door as thus far described is substantially the door described and illustrated in more detail in said application.

An angle 26 defines one jamb for the door and has one of its flanges 28 arranged parallel to the plane of the door opening and its other flange 29 arranged perpendicularly to said plane. The outer edge of the flange 29 is, however, arranged to define an obtuse angle in a vertical plane (Figure 3) and the flange 28 follows said outer edge. Thus, said flange 28 defines an obtuse angle with its apex extending outwardly from the building on which it is mounted and the flange 29 closes the zone between the flange 28 and the channel 18. The angle 26 is, in the present embodiment aflixed to the channel 18 in any convenient manner, as by bolting, welding or otherwise.

A similar angle jamb 31 is provided at the opposite end of the door opening, namely, at the rightward end as appearing in'Figure 1. The door structure 3 is of such length as to fit between the angle jambs 26 and 31 at each side of said door and said door structure has a flange 36 on either side thereof extending over the flanges 28 of the angle jambs. Thus, when said door is in closed position as shown in Figure 2, said door is closed snugly against the angle jambs 26 and 31 and said jambs in view of their connection with the building walls, effect an effective closure of the space which would otherwise exist between the ends of said doo'rs and the walls defining the door opening.

The structure and purpose of the angle jambs 26 and 31 is disclosed in greater detail in my copending application Serial No. 724,174 filed March 26, 1958, and reference may be made thereto for a fuller understanding of this structure.

Turning now to the particular subject of the present invention, it will be recognized upo'n inspection of Figure 3 of the drawings that in a given installation the distance from the axis of the roller 14 to the axis of the hinge 11 is of fixed character. It will also be understood that, while the axis of the pivot 6 can in most cases be adjusted somewhat horizontally, this will be a difiicult adjustment to make inasmuch as it supports the entire Weight of the door. Further, because of the weight so supported any such adjusting mechanism will need to be of such heavy and sturdy nature that it will be relatively expensive to provide. Therefore, from a commercial point of view, the axis of the pivot 6 should be considered as fixed.

However, in any given installation, it must be assumed that the distance between the track 16, and particularly its inside surface 27, to the axis of the hinge 11 will vary from one installation to the next and, further, will vary even between opposite sides of the door in the same installation. However, with the distance from the roller 14 to the hinge point 11 of relatively fixed nature, it will distances of a few thousandths of an inch will make a great deal of difference in the amount of force which is exerted in the lower section of the door for opening same. Thus, where the pivot point 6 has been mounted too far outwardly of the building structure with respect to the position of the track, or where the track has been mounted too far outwardly with respect to the position of the pivot 6, the force indicated by the arrow 32 will be greatly diminished and the maximum open position of the door will be approximately as shown in broken lines in Figure 3. This is obviously undesirable and represents the situation intended to be corrected by the present invention.

Referring first to Figures 4 and 7, it will be observed that the door of the type here particularly utilized to illustrate the invention includes a side structural member consisting of a generally Z-shaped member 33 having a web 35, an inner flange 34 extending toward the center of the door primarily for structural strength purposes and an outer flange 36 extending away from the center of the door which, as discussed above, is intended to overlay the iamb and thereby seal the door with respect to the jamb. A reinforcing plate 37 will normally be provided along the inside surface of the structural member 33 extending from the pivot 6 to a point adjacent said adjusting mechanism for purposesappearing following. The hinge plate 12 is fastened along with a further reinforcing plate 38 to the outer surface of the structural member and extends beyond the lower eud of the upper section 4.

The lower hinge plate 13 is pivotally affixed to the upper hinge plate 12 by any suitable hinging means 11, such as the bolt 39, a spacer 40, a nut 41 and a lock nut 42. A bolt 43 holds the hinge plate and the reinforcing plate 38 firmly against the outer surface of the structural member 33 but is of sufiiciently smaller diameter than the opening in hinge plate 12 and reinforcing plate 38 through which it extends that it permits a slight longitudinal motion of the hinge plate 12 and reinforcing plate 38 with respect to the structural member 33. A further bolt 44 extends through the hinge plate 12, the reinforcing plate 38 and through an oversized opening in the member 33 into a fitting 46 which threadedly receives same and functions as a nut with respect to said bolt 44. A further bolt 47 extends through snugly fitting openings in the structural member 33 and the reinforcing member 37 into a fitting 48 which functions as a nut with respect to said bolt 47. The fittings 46 and 48 have coaxial openings 49 and 51, respectively, the opening 49 being threaded and the opening 51 being unthreaded. The rod 52 is rotatably and slidably received into the opening 51 and is threaded for reception in the opening 49. A nut 53 is fixed, as by welding, to the rod 52 for turning said rod into an adjusted position and limiting the movement of the rod into the opening 51. Thus, rotation of the rod 52 in one direction will permit said fittings 46 and 48 to move under the weight of the door toward each other and rotation in the opposite direction will push said fittings apart.

Thus, by adjustment of the threaded rod 52 the fitting 46 can be moved toward and away from the axis of the pivot 6 and this will function to move the axis of the hinge 11 toward or away from the axis of said pivot. In this manner the axis of said hinge is moved toward or away from the axis of the pivot 6 and the guide track 16, and a desired amount of pressure for fully, or substantially fully, closing the said door may be exerted upon the roller 14,

By duplicating the above described structure on the opposite side of the door, corresponding adjustment can be provided for both sides of the door structure.

While the foregoing described construction is preferred for reasons of ease of adjustment, accessibility and ease of checking from time to time for maintenance purposes, it will be recognized that at least the broader objectives of the invention can be provided by applying a similar type of adjustment to the mounting structure for the roller 14 with respect to the lower section 9, whereby said hinge 11 may be adjusted to vary the distance from its axis to the axis of the roller 14 and thereby otherwise accomplish at least the broader objectivesof the invention. Similarly, the adjustment mechanism shown here as placed between the hinge structure and the upper section 4 may, if desired, be placed between the hinge and the lower section 9 without change in the structure of the apparatus itself.

While a specific embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that the principles of the invention can be expressed in a variety of diiferent specific structures and accordingly the hereinafter appended claims are to be interpreted as applying to said modifications excepting as said claims by their own terms expressly require otherwise.

What is claimed is:

1. In a door construction for closing an opening in the wall of a building, said door having upper and lower sections connected together by a hinge having a horizontal hinge axis, the upper section of said door being pivotally mounted on said building by a pivot structure having a horizontal pivot axis and the lower end of said doorbeing guided for vertical sliding movement by guide tracks secured to saidbuilding adjacent the side edge of said opening, the plane of said vertical sliding movement being at .least substantially in the same vertical plane as the axis of said pivot structure; said hinge including a pair of hinge plates secured to said upper and lower sections and extending upwardly and'dowm wardly thereon, respectively; a horizontal hinge pin section.

2. In a door construction for closing an opening in the wall of a building, said door having upper and lower sections connected together by a hinge having a hori-' zontal hinge axis, the upper section of said door being pivotally mounted on said building by a pivot-structure having a horizontal pivot axis and the lower end of said door being guided for vertical sliding movement by guide tracks secured to said building adjacent the side edges of said opening, the plane of said vertical sliding movement being at least substantially in the same vertical plane as the axis of said pivot structure; said hinge including a pair of hinge plates secured to the corresponding side edges of said upper and lower sections and extending upwardly and downwardly thereon, respectively; a horizontal hinge pin extending between and transverse to said hinge plates and supporting said plates for pivotal movement with respect to each other; one of said hinge plates having a vertically elongated slot therethrough and a bolt extending through said slot and into the door section associated therewith connecting said one hinge plate to said last-mentioned door section for vertical movement with respect to said last-mentioned door section; and threaded means vertically movably mounted on said last-mentioned door section and can nected to said one hinge plate for moving said one hinge plate upwardly and downwardly on said last-mentioned door section to thereby adjust the distance between said hinge pin and said last-mentioned door section.

3. A door construction as defined in claim 2 wherein the door section has a side plate defining the side edge thereof and said one hinge plate is parallel with and closely adjacent the outer surface of said side plate; a fixture mounted on the inner surface of said side plate for vertical sliding movement; means securing said fixture to said one hinge plate; and means mounted on said side plate for moving said fixture upwardly and downwardly thereon.

4. In a door construction for closing an opening in the wall of a building, said door having upper and lower sections connected together by hinge means having a horizontal hinge axis, the upper section of said door being pivotally mounted on said building by a pivot structure having a horizontal pivot axis and the lower end of said door being guided for vertical sliding movement by guide tracks secured to said building adjacent the side edges of said opening, the plane of said vertical sliding movement being at least substantially in the same vertical plane as the axis of said pivot structure; said hinge means including two hinges adjacent the opposite side edges of said door, each hinge including a pair of parallel hinge plates secured to the corresponding side edges of said upper and lower sections and extending upwardly and downwardly thereon, respectively; a horizontai hinge pin extending between and transverse to said hinge plates and Supporting said plates for pivotal movement with respect to each other; the upper one of said hinge plates having a vertically elongated slot therethrough and a bolt extending through said slot and secured to said upper door section and supporting said one hinge plate for vertical movement with respect to said upper door section; and threaded means vertically movably mounted on said upper door section and connected for moving said one hinge plate upwardly and downwardly on said upper door section to thereby adjust the distance between said hinge pin and the pivot axis of said pivot structure.

5. A door construction as defined in claim 4 wherein said upper door section has a side plate defining the side edge thereof and said hinge plate is parallel with and closely adjacent the outer surface of said side plate; a first fixture rigidly afiixed to the inner surface of said side plate, a threaded rod rotatably but non-axially movably mounted on said first fixture and extending downwardly therefrom; a second fixture slidably mounted onthe inner surface of said side plate below said first fixture, said second fixture having a downwardly extending threaded opening therethrough into which said rod is '8 threaded so" that said second fixture will be moved upwardly or downwardly upon rotation of said rod; said second fixture having a transversely extending opening therethrough adjacent the lower end thereof; said side plate having a vertically elongated slot therethrough adjacent the lower end of said second fixture; a bolt secured to said hinge plate and extending through said slot and threaded into said transversely extending opening in said second fixture whereby said hinge plate is 18 rigidly secured to said second fixture.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,947,691 Baldwin et a1. Feb. 20, 1934 2,615,194 Kreiner Oct. 28, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 696,416 Great Britain Sept. 2, 1953 

